吃霸王餐 and dine and dash

[Kenny同志]

吃霸王餐 occurs when one leaves a restaurant without paying for the meal that s/he has had. Usually， the one who 吃霸王餐 would sneak out of the restaurant, or simply refuse to pay by 耍橫 or 賴皮.

Does dine and dash carry the same connotations?

[li3wei1]

I've never heard that expression, as far as I can remember, but from the looks of Google that's exactly what it means. When I did it, it was called 'doing a runner'.

[imron]

I second 'doing a runner'

[Kenny同志]

Thank you Liwei and Imron for your comments.

Is there an equivalent to 霸王餐 in English?

[skylee]

I have only tried 搭霸王車 in Germany and Korea (I had no other options, believe me). I haven't had the chance to 吃霸王餐 yet.

I have also sneaked in museums in Germany and Shanghai. How do you say this in Chinese?

Oh I am a worse person than I thought.

[Kenny同志]

I have also sneaked in museums in Germany and Shanghai. How do you say this in Chinese?

霸王進館。

[Kenny同志]

Well, obviously I was joking. I hope you didn't mind, Skylee.

Seriously, what you did is 逃票.

[heifeng]

I would say/have heard 'skipping out/ running out on the (restaurant) bill (or likewise a tab) but perhaps there are some regional differences. Doing a runner hasn't actually crossed my vocab (until I just now googled it)

In terms of the way in which someone 吃霸王餐...

if it was 賴皮 (as opposed to just running out) I would use the word weasel as a verb to weasel their way out of (ie refusing paying) the bill (perhaps when caught?!)

耍橫 sounds like it's more a way of bullying one's way out of a bill..not just skipping out

(reserve the right to edit as needed as I double check...)

[muirm]

"Dine and dash" refers to leaving quickly ("dash") and secretively without paying. If you have a confrontation with the staff before leaving, it no longer qualifies as "dine and dash". I reckon it's just one'a our here 'merican sayins. Or if other commenters are from America, perhaps regional inside the US? I wish urban dictionary also had a map where users could indicate where they're from and if they have or have not heard an expression. Then we could easily see regional variations.

[OneEye]

I've never heard "doing a runner" or "dine and dash," though the latter is easy enough to figure out. We called it "dine and ditch" where I grew up in Florida.

Incidentally, at a lot of restaurants, at least in the US, it's considered the server's fault, and it's often grounds for termination. Back when I was working in restaurants I saw quite a few people get fired because their table left without paying. At the very least, most places make the server pay for it out of their own pockets, which can mean that they worked an 8-hour shift and lost money in the process. Don't dine and ditch.

[li3wei1]

At the very least, most places make the server pay for it out of their own pockets, which can mean that they worked an 8-hour shift and lost money in the process. Don't dine and ditch.

I'd say the moral of that story is, don't get a job as a waiter. Can you imagine a bank teller, or even the guard, getting landed with a bill for $1.5 million because a robbery had been successful?

[陳德聰]

That's a pretty bleak life for the servers where you're from! I'm pretty sure it is against the law to make servers pay out of their own pocket in British Columbia...

At the restaurant I work at, we call it a "dine and dash", but I have heard my father and his friends talking about "doing a runner".

I think "skip out on the bill" works, but as an extension of "skip out on sth.", not so much as a set phrase.

The only issue is that I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually run or skip... They usually just very quietly disappear haha.